Ski Damage When Skiing the Bumps
September 30, 2006
Questions for the gear geeks and ski professionals out there. Skiing Urban Legend: skis with metal layers (common in race skis and higher performance skis) risk being deformed when skied in the bumps. True or false? Is this true for other ski materials? Any specific upper-end skis you'd either recommend or would advise against skiing in the bumps?
I'm really wondering about whether you risk ski damage, not asking whether most skiers would want use a ski in the bumps. If it matters, I'm 190 pounds, advanced skier, aggressive when I have the energy that day, ski a variety of lines in the bumps from zipper to carved to skidded.
Newer (Atomic) Volants -> bad (delam risk)
Other than that, I've noticed some older Volkl GS (p40, p50 era) skis lose reverse camber at the shovel, some Elan (Mantis era M10, M12) lose overall 'pop'.
So, how are those 666's faring?
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So, how are those 666's faring?
Only skied them one weekend at Timberline last year, so they're still brand new. They may end up being my every day Mid-Atlantic skis since they are a bit heftier with more tenacious edge hold/stability on GS turns than my Atomic SX-9s.
I demoed the Fischer RX-9's last year at Whitetail. A great ski for GS turns on the groomed or through piled-up snow, but somewhat demanding in the bumps. Can't remember if it was the Fisher rep or someone else, but I coulda' sworn someone last year mentioning the RX-9's may suffer some damage in the bumps due to their metal layer. Hence, the reason for my starting this thread. Of course, that didn't prevent me from taking some Atomic slalom skis (SL-9?) into the bumps on demo day. Gotta explore the limits of a pair of skis and the limits of my skillz...
I have never damanged any skis in the bumps. But I try to avoid bumps when they are rock hard and super icy. I also try to take the easy line through most times and avoid the biggest ruts. I never ski the zipperline, I have never been able to do it properly. My best bump skis however are my old K2 Axis skis which are 181cm and are all wood, no metal.
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But I try to avoid bumps when they are rock hard and super icy. I also try to take the easy line through most times and avoid the biggest ruts.
Me too.
Unless Pierre double dares me.
If you do something that would bend a ski with metal layers, you'd likely also be damaging a non-metal ski. I have seen s couple mogul-damaged skis that had bent edges, delaminated topsheet and base, and trashed cores. Whether they had metal layers or not was sort of irrelevant at that point.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. I am a lousy mogul skier and have never damaged any skis in the bumps despite having some good crashes in my earlier days. Two of my three current skis have metal layers and do just fine. Actually, my Elan M666 are my new favorites in bumps -- they really ski nicely and the width is about perfect. My other skis are not nearly as good for this type of terrain.
I have to imagine a lot depends on the length of the ski vs the span of the trough. Shorter skis have to flex less to sit in the trough but a longer ski is going to sit on the high points and get compressed into the trough more. I know this is the case on my board. When I rode a 156 I had little problem running through moguls. On my 168 I can end up suspended in mid air as my board spans the high points result in me not having a lot of control and getting a little out of sorts.
Thread Jack in progress.... Hey Kennedy, what board are you riding? I rarely see the average rider on anything in the 168 range unless its big guy, a powder board or an alpine board. I do agree about the longer boards requiring more attention in the bumps. My Donek Axis 177 can be a handful in tight bumps.
It's a Burton Canyon and I'm 6'2" 220lbs. It's actually a reasonably nimble board. My prior board was a 156 which was great as a beginner pushing intermediate because I could shove it around, but, as I got better I was getting past the limit of the board and I was getting frustrated. The Burton is great, the first time I rode it I realized I didn't know as much as I thought I did so I had to learn to ride a little more technically. Now that thing carves like a SOB and I have yet to reach it's limits. It's a demon on groomers and unbelievably sweet in trees and powder although if the trees are super tight it's tricky. In jumps it almost feels like it's floating and is rock solid on landings. I've even ridden it with reasonable success in the pipe.
Oh and it hates bumps (my contribution to keeping this on thread)
Cool. I've ridden that board before. I'm a little bigger than you at 6'3" 250lb but I liked how it rode. My shortest board is a 162 Fatbob, also have a Dynastar LZ wide in 170 and my Donek 177. The FatBob is definetly easier to work with in the bumps. I've gotten hooked on alpine though so it doens't come to the mtn very often anymore.
been there, done that! Actually it was back in the day at Ski Liberty I was skiing Eastwind bumps with a pair of 207cm K2 TNCs (yup they have metal) and I took a really direct line on a particular bump and bent the shovel pretty good. I also saw my ski bud J. bend a recent K2 slalom ski (he still skied on it all day ha!) as well after slamming a bump pretty hard. So yeah I think you can bust up a ski mogul skiing.
Crush I'm shocked your skis are touching the moguls at all let alone getting deformed in any way.
One thing I have noticed is that metal-free skis are generally much easier to ski in bumps. My old K2 Axis boards are wood and cap contruction and still are the best bump ski I have. No metal usually means lighter weight, softer flex, and a more lively ski. So I guess its a win-win to go metal free form a perfromance-maintainence standpoint.
When I look at the skilled zipper-line bumpers at 7S they are on twin tip park skis like a public enemy or a 1080, or mogul specific sticks.
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I am a lousy mogul skier and have never damaged any skis in the bumps despite having some good crashes in my earlier days.
Actually IMHO, the better you get, the more likely you are to damage skis in bumps. You're generally skiing a lot faster and harder, tend to experiment with different lines, and all it takes is one bad line over a single bump ...
I will vouch that Crush's skis do touch the snow, but they never travel at subsonic speeds.
President Kennedy - lol what *r* you talking about ... moi lol?
T. - Actually I really liked the old Fischer Freestyles or F17's .. no metal, nice flex, noodley shovel and a stiff tail (for recovery)!
JohnL - oh well you know I am lazt so forget speed control!
